Signal for automobiles



June 9, 1925.

G. J. EvAN SIGNAL FOR AUTOLIMOBILES Filed Aug. 17j 1925 2 Sheets-sheet 1 June 9, 1925.

G. J. EVANS sGNAL FOR AUTOMOBILES Filed Aug. i7, 1925 2 Smets-sheet 2 Patented June 9, 1925.

UNITED STATES l1,541,031; iPAralar OFFICE.

i GUY J. Evans,- oF BUFFALO, new YORK.

i .siei-r`niiy non Aureivieeinns.

Appiiauon inea Augier 17, 1923.1 serieu No. 657,917.

To (17,/ 117mm 'it may` concern:

zen oi" theUnited States, residing at Buffalo,

in the county of Erie and State otNeiv` York, .have invented a new and useful Improvement in Signals for Automobiles, of

which the following is a speciiication.

This invention relatesV to a4 signal which is more l'iarticularly designed for 'use on `uiobile asto whether the. driver intends to turn to the right or to the left or is coming to a stop it beingobvious however that this device can bensed in'otherinstallations where similar conditions exist.

It is Vthe purpose of this inventionto provide a signal of this character which' can be 'readily installed and easily manipulated. and which is so designed that it is impossible to give more than one indicationat a time and thereby avoid confusion in 'the `giving of the signal.y

Vlfn the accompanying drawings: YFigure 1 is a sectional elevation lof the steering wheel 'of an automobile driving mechanism showing the same equipped with a part of my invention and illustrating the manner in which the same is operatedby'the hands oi'A the driver while grasping`7tlie steering wheel. Figure 2 is a fragmentary sectional perspective view'of the steering and 'bra'le mechanism oran automobile equippediwith Figure Bis a verticalV my' improvements. transverse section of the indicator portion of the signal embodying my improvements` bers in its depressed or Voperative position an d the combined indicatoiian d return member in its elevated position. VFigure A6 is a il'agment-ary horizontal section taken on line (S of Figure. 4l.

Similar characters lot' reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. y 'y p l My improved signal may be varied in its details et construction and still embody my invention and the same may `also be mounted on automobiles or which vary in design and mly those parts ot an automobile have therelorc been shown which will'serve to illus-- trate the application of my invention. The

. J parts of the automobile as there shown 4coin.- Be it known that LGUY J. EVANS, a cit1.

prise a body havinga bottoni; 10 and a y loot board 11. arranged at an angle at the front end or the bottom, an upright .steering post 1&24 which forms part ofthe steering mechanism ofthe automobile and is provided at its upper end with a steering wheel 13 adapted to be grasped on transversely oppositesides bythe handsof the driver, a brake 'leveilet arranged underneath the body and adapted to operate the brake bands oi'- similar mechanism of the, automobile, and a foot brake lever 15 projecting upwardly through a slot 16 in the foot board and providedv at-its upper end with a twill 17 and connectedbelow the foot board with the brake lever 141 by means of a brake rod 18. vi i In its general organization the signal emwhich extendsffrom a point adjacentto the A -steering wheel to the indicating mechanism whereby the indicating portion of the mechanism is set to give the desired signal. y t The indicating portion ofthesignalin its preferred fo'rnnas shown in Figures-2 to 7,'is constructed as follows: y ,L

Mountedy on la suitable `part of the automobile, for inst-ancethe rear portion of the body, isa ,trame-upon which the working parts of the `indicator mechanism` is mount# ed and which preferably comprises a base` 19, an upper head 20, and a longitudinal side wall 21 connecting the base and head Awith the correspondinglongitudinaledges of the saine. This frame is mounted on a bracket 22 which may be secured to any available fpart of thel automobile, sueh 'as the -rear part of the body,l or the `front and rear fenders of the saine. Upon this frame is a removable shell section which together with 4the trame forms theenelosingl casing of theindicator inechanism,lwhich shellin its preferred form as shown in the drawings,

Vcomprises a iront wallH 23 yadapted to enclosing casing may be detacha-bly connected with the fixed or immovable portion of the casing in any suitable manner, for instance by means of screws 27 connecting the longitudinal side wall with the base and head of the frame, as shown in Figure 3, thereby rendering the interior of the casing acces sible for inspecting, adjusting and iepair-` "ing the `movable parts of the indicator mechanism which are mounted on the frame of the same.

On the lower part of the front wall 23 of the enclosing casing is arranged a sight opening 28' through which the indicator members arranged within A the casing are visible from the exterior of the casing, which sight opening is preferably covered by a transparent pane 29 of uncolored glass or similar material. Vithin the. rear lower part ofthe enclosing casing and in line with the sight opening 28' is arranged a lamp 30 peferably in the form of an incandescent electric bulb which is mounted on the wall 2l and is supplied with an electric current in any suitableanldiV approved manner so that when thec-urrent is turned, on the light of this lamp will illuminate the in terior of the signal casing and shine through the sight opening 28. i

lVithin the enclosing casing are mounted a plurality of indicator members, any one of which is movable into and out of the position acrossthe sight opening and the rays of lightl from the lamp so that these indicator members may be visibile either in the daytime or during the night-time and may be utilized to notify persons adjacent to the signal as to the intentions of the driver of the vehicle.

In the construction shown four of such indicator inem-bers are employed, three of vthem being constructed to serve simply as indicating members while the fourth one is constructed to serve the double purpose of an indicating member and a return member Aas will hereinafter appear, In the preferred construction these indicator members are arranged 1n a longitudinalrow within the enclosing casing and so mounted that they are capable of moving vertically therein for the purpose of moving any one of the indicator members dlownw'a-rdly between thc sight. opening and thel lam-p or. upwardly into a position where the same clears' the sight openingf and lamp and is concealed within the upper imperforate part of the renclosinr'g casing. The three Iplain, indicator members inthe preferred construction are arranged one' behind the other within the front part of the enclosing Casing while the combined indicating and return nurmher is arrangedl within the rear part of this casing and forms the rearmost of the row of indicator members. The body portions of Athe plain indicator members are constructed lflanges which engage with the outer sides of the. respective guide rods 34 and thereby hold the. signal plate against transverse displacement w'ithin the casing. These several signal plate bodies may be provided with any suitable indicia according to the signal to be given. For instance the signal plate neXtt-othe front wall 23 may be perforated or out outin the form of a stencil so as to form the word Left-, the next following Asignal plate body may be provided with perforations or stencil formationrepresenting the word Right7 and the third or last one lof the series may be provided with perforations or with lstencil slots representing the word Stop, as shown. m Figure 8. Wrhen any one of these plain signal plates is fi-1r its elevated position within the rca-sing the, same' cannot be observed from `the exterior of the same, but upon lowering the same into'the spacebetween the sight opening 28 and the signal lamp 30 this signal 'plate plate can beI observed from the ente-4 l ferred construction the perforated or slotted in|dlicia on each of the signal plates is preferably covered by transparmt material such as a Sheet 36 ofcelluloid of an appropriate color. Y v

The combined indicator and return member is preferably constructed in the form of a frame 37 which is heavy and preferably madeof metal, anda transparent pane 38 of glass or similar material which is mounted within this frame andcolorcd red. Upon lowering this frame into a position in which/it is arranged between the sight naanoo" suc-li as are usually'employed on the rear end'ot an automobile, but when this combined indicator and return meinber elevated,'its servire as a signa-l is discontinued inasmuch as it is not visible trom' the eX-c terior ot the casing andthe light ot the lamp cannot shine outwardly through the same. .lhis combined indicator and rear member is guided in its vertical movements within the enclosing 'ii-sing by engaging the.opposite reduced ends 39 ot the trame o'tA this indicator between pairs otposts 4M), 4l, one ot `which preferably 40, is constructed in the lorm ot a rod .similar to the rods 3ft, while the other ll,'is preferably constructed in the Aterm of an upright bar which is secured at its upper and lower ends to the base 19 and head Q() oit the main. trame.

Means are provided which are manually controlled ,whereby any one oit the indicator members .may be moved into'its lowered or operative position, or raised into its elevated inoperative position, which means are so constructed that the` depression of one ol the indicator members will causexan elevation o'll all the other indicator members and lprevent the depression ot more than one indicator member at a time. The preferred 'form ot these means, as shown in the drawings are constructed as follows:

represents a controlling' memberor line i which is preferably constructed in the form ot a flexible strap, `cord or chain and which has its opposite ends. fixed while its intern'iedfiate part is`operatively connected tothe several indicator .members so that upon depressing any one of these indicator members a downwardly projecting loop will be 'formed in the intermediate part of the controlling member bythe respective indicator member while the remaining .indicator members will be elevated. In the construction shown in the drawings the controlling member has the term of a line or cordwhich` is secured at its opposite ends to outer and-inner hangers 43, 4:4, depending fromv the head oi' 'the 'trame while the intermediate ,parts otl this controlling member pass alternately .underneath rollers Lil-5 mounted on, the upper ends ol the indicator members and over .rollers lo mounted on the upper head 20 ot a downwardly deflected `loop Vinr the controlling member which causes the reiuaining portion olf this controlling` member to be lrawnftaut so that that portionolf the controlling lineormember inglront oit'the downwardly defiected rear part tliereoit is straight l and ina horizontal position and holds the plain indicator members in elevated position;

i lUpon the downward .movement -o't any one ot the indicator members a previously' depressed indicator vmember will he elevated and will produce another downwardly deliected loop in the'controlling member thereby causing the previously formedloop therein to be elin'iinated and 'tlieimlicator member supported thereon to be elevated. Asn example ot such an operation is shown in Figure 5 in'iwhicli the thirdA indiiator member inwardly lrom thel wall 23 has been lowered into its operative position; so as'to cause the sameto 'form 2a downwardly dc tlected loop inthe controlling memberwhich in turn 'causes 4that part of ythe controlling member inrear o'lg this loop to be straight# ened out or drawn taut and cause the com- `bined indicator and return member to' be elevated. l y

TheV plain indicatormembers 31,32, 33 are yadapted tofbe` ypulled down by manually operatednieanswhile the combined indicator andA return member is made suiiiciently vheavy so thatfwhen the same is `lreeit will descend into its operative position by gravity and will causetheelevationof anyone iot the plain indicator members which may have been previously depressed, while tliedepre'ssion ol any one of the `plain indicator memjbers bymanual power will cause thel elevation or iraising ot' the combined indicator and f return meniberintoits elevated posi.- tion. Although various means `may be einployed for depressing one or the other ot the plainindicator members lthose shown `in the drawings are so organized that a manual selection ot the desired signal plate may be made which are under the control of the operator orvdriver at the .front end of the car and enable him to depress` whichever signal or indicator plate to suit his purpose.

In its preferred form this manual control means is constructed as follows: l? is a flexible line ol `any suitable charactersuch for instance as a chain which is connected at one end with the lnake lever ll and at `'its other end with the body ot the signal member bearing Vthe word Stop Upon operating the brake mechanism in any manner, for instance by means of thef'toot lever liso vas to produce a downward pull uponthe Aline 47 the stop signal plate will be depressed into its lowermost position so that thesame is in line with the sight openlll) ingQSandthe lamp B0. This operationV will l i cause the combined indicator and return with any of the parts now present on .the car. The same is very simple in oonstruction and reliable in operation and permits of giving the proper signal to persons on the roadway Without the possibility of an error and thereby preventing confusion and avoiding accidents which otherwise might result.. Y

I claim as my invention:

l. A signal for automobiles and ete., comprising a casing provided with a sight opening, an indicated member arranged in said casing` and movable into and out of a position across said opening, a return member movable normall)7 into its operative position, manually operate-d means for moving said indicator member across said opening, and automatic means 'for moving' said indicator member out ot line With said opening` when the return member moves toits normal position, comprising` a flexible controlling member having its ends fixed While itsintermediate part is operatively connected prising a casing provided With a sight opening, an indicator member arranged in said leasing and movable into and out of a position across said opening, a return member tending` constantly to movein one direction, and shiftingl means for moving` said return member in the opposite direction upon moving said indicator memberinto a position across said opening, comprising a iiexible controlling member having` its ends fixed Whileits intermediate partis operatively connected With said return and indicator members and adapted to having portions thereof deflected into loops upon moving said members-relatively to one another.

In testimony whereof I aiiiX my signature.

GUY J. EVANS. 

